The No. 16 Ithaca College wrestling team is off to a dominant start with a strong 11-2 record in dual meets. As the team gears up for the final stretch of the regular season, the wrestlers have their eyes set on the national stage and bring a national championship back to South Hill for the first time since 1990.
The Bombers returned to campus during winter break to prepare for their Ithaca Quad Meet on Jan. 5. Head coach Martin Nichols ’87 said the break allowed the team to focus on all aspects of wrestling without having to worry about classes.
“The double sessions helped a lot,” Nichols said. “[We] really focus in on a lot of the finer points that the guys need, and they really tuned in.”
One of the highlights of the winter break competitions was the Budd Whitehill National Duals on Jan. 10–11 at Lycoming College. The Bombers took home third place, going 4-1, including a commanding 30-15 victory over No. 20 Ohio Northern University. They ultimately fell to No. 5 University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the semifinals, 36-7.
Nichols said that regardless of the outcome of these invitationals, he thinks the team is successful because his athletes are getting good reps against some of the best teams in the nation.
“We’re really close,” Nichols said. “We’re in some tight matches and that’s what we wanted to do. We want to get some tight matches with those midwest guys to get a feel for their style. You gotta have a couple more guys step up and beat some of the other ranked guys.”
The top three finishers in each weight class at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships advance to the national championship. Junior 184 lbs wrestler Konrad Parker said the Bombers have their eyes set on sending their entire starting lineup to the national meet.
“Nothing really matters until Regionals,” Parker said. “So taking our egos away a little bit and knowing it’s okay to rest an injury now as long as it’s good at Regionals is [worth it].”
Senior 184 lbs wrestler Xavier Pommells said that while the team is not looking past the meets leading up to Regionals, they understand that it is vital that they are in top form when it matters most at the Regional Championships.
“It’s just keeping not a level of tunnel vision, but a level of peripheral vision and understanding though this is what is in front of us, at the end of the day not to look past something but to anticipate the end goal,” Pommells said.
The South Hill squad decided to rest some starters during the State University of New York Athletic Conference Championship on Jan. 18 as they knew they had bigger goals ahead. They ended up finishing a mere sixth out of eight teams at the meet. Parker was one of the athletes that was held out of the meet along with junior 133 lbs wrestler Isaias Torres, senior 141 lbs wrestler Matt Haycoock, senior 149 lbs wrestler Wenchard Pierre-Louis and senior 174 lbs wrestler Jackson Gray. Parker, who has been nursing a knee injury, has a 22–2 record so far on the season.
Parker said he was upset that he could not represent his team at the SUNYAC championship, but he understood the decision from his coaches.
One of the athletes who stepped up and performed at SUNYAC is first-year student 125 lbs wrestler Tomah Gummow, who has a 24–11 record on the season and has been a consistent force in the starting lineup. Gummow won the 125 lbs bracket and Nichols said that having strong first-year students such as Gummow helps push the upperclassmen in practices and adds to the depth of the team.
“Tomah’s been really coming along,” Nichols said. “He’s really good to start the match because he’s exciting. He gets a lot of takedowns and gets after the guy, he’s physical and he scores a lot so it really gets the guys going.”
Last season, the Bombers had firepower, sending five wrestlers to the national meet, but in order to compete as a team, they know they need to send close to, if not the entire,10 person starting lineup. They have four nationals returners: Torres, who was an All-American in the 133 lbs bracket finishing seventh place last season along with junior 197 lbs Ryan Galka, Pierre-Louis and Gray. Parker was on the cusp of breaking through last season, placing fourth at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championship in the 165 lbs bracket.
Parker said he knows that competing on the national stage will be a challenge, but it is a major competition that is bringing him and his teammates together.
“I think it’s nice knowing we have a lot of guys that are on that cusp that have a chance,” Parker said. “It just pushes everyone — all weights — and that brings the team together even more toward that common goal.”
The Bombers had a great opportunity to test themselves against the national competition when they faced the No. 10 College of New Jersey Lions on Jan. 24. The match came down to the wire, but ultimately the Lions pulled ahead with a 26-15 victory.
The Bombers fought hard though, with Parker securing a huge 4-1 victory over Nick Sacco, a two-time All-American and the defending national champion in the 165 lbs weight class.
Pommells, who recorded a victory in the match, said the team knows they can compete with these nationally ranked teams; the key is wrestling tighter and cleaning up mistakes.
“It’s just being a lot more meticulous and much more keen to detail within our technique, to be more stingy, to be more precise and to just overall minimize our margin of error when it comes to the big stage,” Pommells said.
The Bombers have six more regular season matches before the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships on March 1–2. Pommells said nobody will remember how the team performed at SUNYAC if they do what they are capable of at the big dance.
“We think we can be a national championship team,” Pommells said. “I genuinely believe all of us at our absolute best can beautifully capture a national title.”
